Case Number 02791

SPY KIDS 2: THE ISLAND OF LOST DREAMS

The Charge

"Creativity goes much further than skill." -- Robert Rodriguez

Opening Statement

When danger rears its ugly head, the government can always count on its best
and brightest secret agents: Carmen and Juni Cortez (Alexa Vega and Daryl
Sabara), elite spy kids of the OSS. But even a simple mission like rescuing the
president's daughter from a wild theme park ride can go awry when snotty rival
agents Gary and Gerti Giggles (Matt O'Leary and Emily Osment) try to step in
first -- and get credit as the real heroes.

And with the accolades come the hot assignments: Gary and Gerti land the
plum Ukata Mission to recover a stolen gadget that can shut down all technology,
with a little help from their father Donnagon Giggles (Mike Judge), the new head
of OSS, who really wants the dangerous Transmooker all to himself. Don't count
Carmen and Juni out so quickly though. They waste no time stealing the
assignment and heading out to thwart Donnagon's plans for world conquest.

But on that mysterious island where the Transmooker is hidden, our Argonauts
will clash with titans: giant monsters created by a mad scientist (Steve
Buscemi). Can the kids save the day before the grown-ups show up to mess up the
whole operation?

The Evidence

When Spy Kids first hit the theaters, I took my 10-year-old
"little brother" (my wife and I were volunteers with Big Brothers/Big
Sisters at the time) out to see it. For the next three weeks, all he would talk
about was what he would do if he had his own jet pack. Robert Rodriguez had
tapped into something with that first film. Spy Kids did not talk down to
kids, and it did not seem designed to sell toys. It was the sort of film that a
10-year-old himself might write. And it was outlandish fun.

Even better, Spy Kids offered a surprisingly non-Hollywood approach
to the spy parody, showing kids that secret agents did not have to be white.
Rodriguez unapologetically made his Cortez family bilingual and mixed Tex-Mex
imagery into his world. This gave Carmen and Juni more personality than the
cookie-cutter characters more often found in children's programming, and part of
the success of the film might be credit to a broader range of identification
among kids who are normally left out of the children's popular culture (except
perhaps as sidekicks to the white hero).

Indeed, Spy Kids tested so well in previews that Disney greenlit a
sequel (through their Dimension label) before the first film even hit wide
release. And like most sequels, Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams,
tries to top its predecessor in scale and complexity. For a 100 minute movie,
Spy Kids 2 has about three hours of plot, swinging wildly from an opening
sequence in an insanely over-the-top amusement park run by Bill Paxton (with
rides like the "Vomiter" and the "Juggler") to the eponymous
island, an homage to Ray Harryhausen, complete with a centaur and fighting
skeletons. The camera never holds still. Everybody talks fast, moves fast, and
generally works slight of hand to distract the audience from the huge plot holes
and the low-budget green screen effects. And writer/director (and production
designer, and about a dozen other jobs) Rodriguez invests this all with headlong
fervor, like a kid hyped up on Cocoa Puffs trying to, well, explain the plot of
Spy Kids 2.

And only a 10-year-old (or somebody trying to think like one) could come up
with a name like "Transmooker" for the secret gadget everybody is
after.

Rodriguez tries to cram every idea possible into the film's running time,
and often many wonderful ideas and performers seem underused. Many faces from
the first picture turn up -- Floop and Minion (Alan Cumming and Tony Shalhoub),
Uncle Felix (Cheech Marin), and Uncle Machete (Danny Trejo, who steals every
scene he is in) -- but they just seem to be dropping by too briefly. Only Mike
Judge, cast as a lark in the first film as Agent Donnagon, has a major role, and
surprisingly manages to hold his own in front of the camera. Even Antonio
Banderas and Carla Gugino as our heroes' parents mostly turn up for comedy
relief this time out. And the pace and clutter of the film ends up burying the
otherwise inspired casting of Holland Taylor and Ricardo Montalban as the Cortez
grandparents.

By all rights, Spy Kids 2 should come apart at the scenes like an
overstuffed toy (and moments like some glaring McDonald's product placement do
not help). Yet, for the most part, it works. Yes, the movie goes for short-term
thrills instead of building suspense. Yes, it feels like it is constantly
yelling at the audience until nothing has much urgency anymore. But everybody in
the film seems to be having such a good time that their joy is infectious.
Rodriguez loves making movies, and his cast and crew are gleefully along
for the ride. This makes the film much more fun than it probably ought to
be.

Such youthful enthusiasm is evident on the commentary track Rodriguez turns
in for the new DVD of the film. He seems to be talking directly to adolescents
watching the movie, and avoids too much technical detail (apart from gushing
over the HD camera system he used to shoot the film). Instead, he focuses on the
creative process, offering tips on how to make your ideas come to life. That
"do-it-yourself" theme gets another go in the latest installment of
the director's "Ten Minute Film School" series, in which he narrates
over behind-the-scenes footage of several special effects sequences. With a
budget of only $37 million (paltry for an action film these days), Rodriguez had
to approach this project with an indie sensibility, looking to maximize scale
and detail within his means. While some of the end result looks a little rough
(the green screens are pretty obvious), Rodriguez takes the attitude that the
homemade feel encourages kids to pick up cameras and make their own movies.

And so, most of the extras on this disc focus on the kids. Disney tries to
make up for their bare-bones approach to Spy Kids by overloading the
sequel with supplements (plus offering a gorgeous anamorphic transfer that seems
better lit and color-balanced than I remember in the theater). There are
featurettes about how the young cast members trained for their stunts ("A
New Kind of Stunt Kid"), an eco-tour home movie ("School at Big Bend
National Park"), a short puff piece about how much the kids love the
gadgets ("Essential Gear"), and an ABC Family promotional special
("Total Access 24/7"). We also get some behind-the-scenes home movies,
a trivia game, and eight deleted scenes with optional commentary by Rodriguez.
But the oddest extra is a music video (the same as runs through the film's end
credits) starring Carmen and Juni. Juni does a hilarious Angus Young
impersonation, but I suspect Carmen's sexy hip gyrations are illegal in some
countries.

Closing Statement

If Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams had been made by any other
Hollywood director, it would either self-destruct or be dull as dirt. By Robert
Rodriguez should be commended for keeping his sense of fun in a town (and under
the thumb of a company) that sees children only as little purchasing machines.
Orson Welles likened his first experiences in moviemaking to having "the
biggest magic kit a boy was ever given." Robert Rodriguez clearly still
thinks of films that way too. Hollywood could use more directors like that.

The Verdict

Robert Rodriguez and his crew are released by this court for acting in good
faith. Disney is commended for a fine job packaging this DVD. Case
dismissed.